Boulder City Council members are broadly supportive of a new University Hill reinvestment strategy that includes using city money to pick up trash and shovel sidewalks, hiring a dedicated coordinator to organize public and private efforts, and forming some sort of special district or redevelopment corporation to provide funding for improvements.

However, they said that investment needs to be coupled with strict code enforcement, including attention to rental licensing violations and over-occupancy.

The Boulder City Council discussed the Hill reinvestment strategy at a study session Tuesday night.

Molly Winter, director of the Downtown and University Hill Management Division and Parking Services, described $20 million in investment over the last five years amid ongoing frustration about the economic state of the area.

"I think all that investment has not achieved the results the community wanted to see," Winter said.

But Winter also described a commitment from residents, student organizations and the business community to work together to improve the neighborhood.

Council members supported a plan to spend city reserve funds to pay for cleanup on the Hill for two and a half years, in lieu of creating a residential services district that would collect additional taxes.

Advertisement

But they said those additional services also need to include tickets for littering and other violations.

"My concern is that with the residential services district, it's like going into your teenage daughter's room to pick up her clothes for her," Councilman Sam Weaver said. "It needs to come with some cost to people."

Mayor Matt Appelbaum said he'd like to see 13th Street be made much more pedestrian-friendly, though it cannot be closed to cars like the Pearl Street Mall.

City officials have proposed making a block of Pennsylvania Avenue an "event block" that could be easily shut down for concerts, festivals and events, but Appelbaum said 13th, as the main commercial stretch, also needs to be looked at.

Shoemaker said a city-owned parking lot on 14th Street that has been targeted for redevelopment into apartments with underground parking should be either faculty housing or for commercial uses, not more student housing.

Council members also said the University of Colorado needs to be much more involved.

"We are essentially a dorm for them," Shoemaker said.

Winter said the city plans to hire the coordinator in the next few months and move forward in conjunction with an "ownership group" of residents, landlords and business owners.

"A lot of people are working really hard, and it's such a special place and it can be even better," Winter said.

New coordinator pushes Buffs to work, play at level he expectsJim Leavitt has discovered this much about his new defense at Colorado: He has some talent with which to work, but his players need to put it in another gear. Full Story